Hollywood's new hopefuls have been picked by teen-agers;
here's how they live, work, date and try to stay on top
MOVIES
RflEETT THE mEDDOHTT
ON OUR COVER
A. Sandra Dee
B. James Darren
C. Carol Lynley
D. Edd Byrnes
E. Tuesday Weld
F. Fabian
6. Frankie Avalon
From mother's knee to theater marquee.
That's the overnight success story of today's
Hollywood heroes and heroines Frankie Avalon,
Tuesday Weld, Fabian, Carol Lynley, Annette
Funicello, Sandra Dee, James Darren and Edd
Byrnes.
Who? you ask. Well, you're showing your age if
these names don't mean as much as Rock Hud
son or Debbie Reynolds. Yesterday they enter
tained the family at home. Today they' are
teen-age idols, and what teen-agers idolize,
Hollywood adores.
Teen-agers are Hollywood's most reliable audi
ence nowadays, and a good actor, fine story and
expert director frequently aren't as profitable as
an awkward kid with uncut hair and adenoid
trouble.
Producer Aaron Spelling, for example, paid 18-year-old
Frankie Avalon $25,000 to costar with
Alan Ladd in "Guns of Timberland." Spelling
had his eye on the cash register, not the Academy
Award shelf. There were three reasons for be
lieving Avalon could hypo theater attendance:
1. Teen-agers take on new idols as quickly as
new fads and discard them as quickly. Avalon
is hot now, and kids will pay money to see him.
2. Most stars start in the record industry and
get plenty of pre-film publicity. Avalon did.
3. The rapidly increasing number of fan and
teen-age magazines helps generate interest among
teen-agers by saturating them with reading about
their favorites and the movies they are making.
Avalon typifies the new order in many respects.
Philadelphia-born, he's shy, likeable and virtu
ally a creation of show-business-wise managers.
Frankie won't even make a date without their
advice. But his earnings are carefully shepherded
and bring new ease to his family and to his father,
a l'ptirprl Inrnmntivp-nnmranv pnoinpm-
1 -- - - o - .
Talent is something teen-agers don't demand of
their favorities. That's evident in the adulation
given Fabian, 16, a strapping, six-foot Philadel
phian who flopped with his first three records,
, found moderate success on the fourth, then hit
the jackpot (with the help of sound engineers)
with "Turn Me Loose." His surprising success led
to a big role in Jerry Wald's "Hound Dog Man"
and an exclusive contract with 20th Century-Fox
which could bring him $2 million. '
Fabians' last name is Forte. He's already bought
his family a new home in the suburbs while keep
ing his own allowance at $20 a week and main
taining a "B" average in school. Like Avalon,
Fabian is too busy to do much dating. Besides
neither can find a teen-age hangout where he
isn't mobbed.
Family
Weekly
On a different track is Edd "Kookie" Byrnes
who hit the big time as a flip-talking side
kick to Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Roger Smith
in TV's "77 Sunset Strip." He's still in the "low
pay bracket" and already is an old man 25. But
as costar Roger Smith says, "He's getting younger
every day." To complete Edd's reversal of for
mula, he was an actor before making a hit rec
ord, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb"
which may sell two million.
James Darren was discovered in Hollywood's
old-fashioned way a talent scout spotted him
waiting for an elevator in New York City. At 23,
he's the only newcomer who's been married, A
divorce is pending and, much to his publicity
man's chagrin, a romance, too with blue-eyed
Evy Norlund, a former Miss Denmark who, like
Darren, is under contract to Columbia.
Unlike the stars of the Golden Era, most of
this group are serious-minded. They adhere to
shooting schedules religiously, avoid late hours
and try desperately to learn their trade. For .the
most part, they appear to be fine examples for
young America, but Hollywood's older cynics
claim that their sterling qualities are really moti
vated by the fact that they know they can fall
as quickly as they've risen. Through hard work
and diligent training, they hope to "graduate"
into the more secure world of adult fans.
Tuesday weld alone reminds old-timers of the
movie star of yesteryear unfortunately, not the
most lovable kind. She's moody, unpredictable
and given to temper tantrums, which takes a lot
of nerve for a 16-year-old whose only prior
claim to fame was a date with Tab Hunter! Now
she's featured on TV and is costarred in "Hound
Dog Man."
Tuesday has been labeled "Queen 'of the Beatniks"-
by an imaginative press agent who probably
can also take the blame for her visiting pool
halls, talking flip language and giving shocking
answers to interviewers. In fairness to Tuesday,
though, she is probably the only young star who
reads serious books and can talk intelligently.
Annette Funicello, a graduate of Walt Disney's
Mouseketers, is no shocker or pseudo-beatnik.
She's being raised small-town fashion by her
closely knit family who set curfews for her, in
spect each boy friend and keep her in a public
school so she'll know "real kids." Annette's ex
travagance is for records a mania shared with
millions of others her age and perfume bottles,
which her mother insists she dust each week.
Ex-model Carol . Lynley, unlike the others,
seems bent on alienating the people who put her
Fans see themselves in Annette Funicello, a talented
"hep teen-ager," typical of today's famous youngsters.
on top teen-agers and the press. She has de
manded fees for magazine publicity pictures (and
got them!) and exhibited notable coolness to her
fans. Recently she had to hire an expensive Hol
lywood publicist to reverse a downward trend
in her fortune. Carol, 17, is recognized as a
promising actress, especially now that she's
learned what the teen-agers giveth, they also
taketh away.
The busiest of the new crop of stars is 17-year-old
Sandra Dee who has made five films in the
past 12 months. That doesn't leave much time for
boys, but Sandra seems happier with a movie
script to study while watching TV. About her
only "high-time" is throwing a swimming party
at her newly purchased home.
By next year, some of these soaring personali
ties may be forgotten; others may go to the
heights achieved by some teen-age favorities of
their parents' era Frank Sinatra, for example.
The sad thing about the good fortune being en
joyed by most of them is that teen-age fans grow
up fast and their tastes mature. And the kid
brothers and sisters who replace them as teen
agers will no sooner accept their idols than they
will their discarded sweaters or dungarees.
i Family Weekly, Auuu.it 30. 1959
by Peer l- Oppenheimer
af -
'
For singer Frankie Avalon, being
an idol means lots of hard work.
A pending divorce hasn't decreased
the popularity of James Darren, 23.
i r V ' . ,
f
u
v. m r -
n J
Tuesday Weld, movie star and "beatnik"
at 16, does the town with Dick Sinatra.
Sandra Dee, 17, filmland's busiest
teen, rehearses with Troy Donahue.
irm
Kids flip for TV's Edd "Kookie" Byrnes
(right), the "old man" among them at 25.
I IIHIM . L H II III vll I I "
I i'h If
Fabian (center), another magic name, talks
with actors Stuart Whitman and Hope Lange.
Philip Dunne directs Carol Lynley
in her role for film "Blue Denim."
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